JOHN G. POGUE is one of the few men who can look back upon their past and see no failures to regret, but find that step by step, and year by year, they have risen higher on the ladder of success, until the prime of life has found them on the topmost round, with leisure to pause and take a retrospective view. John G. Pogue is a son of William Pogue, of whose father we only know that he was of Scotch ancestry, and (at the time of the birth of his only son, William,) a resident of Baltimore, Md. William Pogue was born in 1797, in Baltimore, Md., and in early life learned the trade of a tobacconist. He was well educated and fond of reading. The father dying when William was a small boy, the latter was cared for by his mother, who afterward moved to Buffalo township, Washington county, and purchased a small piece of land about three miles north of Taylorstown. The son followed farming, and also worked a small coal bank located on the place. He was afterward married to Sarah Allison, who was born in 1786, and they had five children: James (who died at the age of forty-seven years, in Cadiz, Ohio), Susan (deceased in infancy), John G. (subject of this sketch), William (who died in Canton, Ill., at the age of forty years) and Sarah Ann (who died in Buffalo township, this county). Mr. Pogue followed farming until the death of his wife, which occurred in 1836. He then worked at his trade with George Black, of Washington, Penn., and passed his later years with his children. Politically he was a lifelong Democrat. He died in 1859. John G. Pogue was born March 28, 1824, in Buffalo township, this county, and when but eight years of age went to live with one Joseph Alexander. With him he remained two years, "doing chores" and attending the common school. In the fall of 1834 he made his home with John C. Hanna, a farmer of Hopewell township, this county, and in 1840 again entered the employ of Mr. Alexander, with whom he remained until 1849. Meanwhile, this industrious youth embraced every opportunity to secure an education. He attended Franklin High School, which was conducted at the home of Major Waterings by W. A. McKee; he also taught school five winters in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. On October 25, 1848, Mr. Pogue was united in marriage with Elizabeth Burt, who was born in August, 1824, a daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth (Dryden) Burt, who were both members of old pioneer families. Mrs. Pogue and a sister, Mrs. Nancy McKee, of Hopewell township, Washington county, are now the only living representatives of the family of ten children in Washington county, the others having settled in different places. Mr. and Mrs. Pogue have had the following children: Sarah Elizabeth (Mrs. John McCammon, of West Finley township), Fannie A. (Mrs. John Atkinson, of Brooke county, W. Va.), Joseph (residing in Wheeling, W. Va.), Mary Jane (who died at the age of twelve years), William (living at home), Martha (Mrs. Hiram Montgomery, of Donegal township), John J. (living with his parents), J. Burt and Anna May (both living at home). For three years after his marriage Mr. Pogue lived as a tenant on the farm of J. C. Hanna, in Hopewell township, this county. He then came to Donegal township, and rented a farm, locating about two and a half miles north of West Alexander, where he remained nineteen consecutive years. Several years before leaving this farm he had purchased an adjoining tract of 114 acres upon which he moved in 1863. By energetic toil and close economy, he soon saved enough money to again invest in land, and in 1868 he bought the "Old McKeown" farm, lying just north of his previous purchase. In 1872 he took possession of the latter farm and has entirely remodeled the residence and all the other buildings. He has few equals as an agriculturist, and his success has been enhanced by the invaluable aid of a careful and economical wife. When he was first married, Mr. Pogue owed $150, since which time he has become one of the most successful and prominent farmers of Donegal township. Politically he was an ardent Abolitionist, and took a great interest in the freedom of the negroes. He is now a Republican, aud has often held township offices, but has declined to enter in the more active warfare of political life. In religious connection he and his wife are members of the U. P. Church of West Alexander.

Text taken from page 241 of: Beers, J. H. and Co., Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893). Transcribed April 1997 by Neil and Marilyn Morton of Oswego, IL as part of the Beers Project. Published April 1997 on the Washington County, PA USGenWeb pages at http://www.chartiers.com/.

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